All I Have to Do Is Dream
by Animaltalker
Summary: A sad explanation for why Joe Fontana has money


He heard the whispers and he saw the looks. It annoyed him but he tried to ignore it.

After all he did bring it on himself. When you wore handmade shirts, and suits that cost as much as the other detectives made in a month, and you drove around in a car they could only dream about, well you had to expect them to talk about your being on the take or that you were born with a silver spoon in your mouth. He heard some of the other cops speculate that he'd won the lottery. Some said that it was just that he'd never been married or had kids, and so he had managed to save money and invest it well. Still others conjectured that he'd inherited the money when some rich relative kicked the bucket. The latter was wrong, but close enough to be painful.

Joe walked into his nicely furnished high-rise apartment. He threw his keys into a glass bowl that sat on an antique table in the entryway. After that he removed his gun and holster and placed them in the drawer of the table. He wandered over to the bar and made himself a drink. He walked to his bedroom and took of his jacket and shoes, putting the latter in his spacious closet and the jacket in the hamper of things to be dry-cleaned. He loosened his tie and sighed, trying to think what to do next. He hated his free time, all it did was give him time to think, time to remember.

He wandered back out to the living room and turned on some jazz and plopped down on the leather couch. He thought about his lifestyle and the façade he wore. The happy ladies man that was who every one thought he was. They would be so surprised to know the truth. Oh, but he'd told so many lies; sometimes he wasn't even sure what the truth was himself any more. No, no that wasn't true either. He knew what the truth was, it was the beautiful dream he often had of his Teresa that he awoke from reluctantly.

Teresa, the only woman he'd ever really loved. He'd been truly amazed to learn she loved him back. They were an odd couple if there ever was one, him - a rough, tough cop from Chicago's south side and her - an heiress from the Lake Shore district. She was not only beautiful and intelligent, but she understood how to handle him. She knew he was like a wild animal, and if she tried too hard to domesticate him, he'd bolt. So she tamed him slowly, letting him think it was his idea to move in with her, his idea to have a baby, and of course to get married before the child was born.

A tear slid down his face when he remembered how excited she was the first time she felt the baby kick. She was in the midst of making the final plans for their wedding and she called out to him.

"Joey, come here," Teresa said excitedly.

"What is it, Honey?" Joe asked with concern as he quickly crossed to her.

"It's the baby," she said with a smile as she took his hand and laid it on her belly.

He smiled and then gathered her to him and kissed her gently. "I love you".

Unbidden the memory of the wedding rehearsal evening came flashing into his mind. The sounds of friends and family laughing and wishing them well, and then the sound of gunfire reverberated in his mind. The sight of his beautiful Teresa lying lifeless in his arms, covered in blood, seeped into his memory like a cloud of poisonous gas. Some bastard he'd arrested decided to have his vengeance. Joe never knew if the son of a bitch missed his mark or if he'd really intended to kill Teresa instead of him. But the guy couldn't have found a better way to seek revenge on him.

He never really recovered from her death. Teresa had named him her sole heir, and so he was a millionaire. He didn't want the money; he wanted her and the child she would have born him. Her brother told him that she would have wanted him to use her money to live well. So he tried. He wore the kind of clothes he thought she would like to see him in, and furnished his home the way he imagined she would like it. He knew she'd hate his car, but he allowed himself that because she'd always said, she didn't want to tame him completely. From time to time friends and family tried to get him to date someone, but it never really worked out. If he started feeling something for a woman, he felt like he was cheating on Teresa, and he always compared the other woman to Teresa. The poor woman would end up trying to compete with a ghost.

The thing that was really bothering him right now, was that when his partner Ed Green got shot, he caught a lot of flack about not being there to back Ed up. And while he did feel guilty about the situation, and had wanted to make sure the guy responsible was nailed; his first thought had been how he wished it had been him who had been there. He wished he'd been the one who had gotten shot. Maybe then he'd be with his Teresa now. As it was he was only with her in his dreams.


End file.
